A "Glowing" Review of the Nevada Test Site (aka Where They Blew up Huge Atomic Bombs)

Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Field Office

About a year or so ago, I heard about the free public tours of the Nevada National Security Site (better known as the Nevada Test Site), the place where they did a huge amount of nuclear bomb testing. With my husband's father being a downwinder (someone who got sick from that testing), I thought it would be a good place for us to visit to learn more about an interesting era in our country's history. The only problem: the tours fill up fast, and there is often a wait of many months to take the tour. (All the tours for 2015 are already full.)

Last October, my friend Matt let me know that the Department of Energy had opened up its 2015 dates. My husband and I filled out a form and applied for the February trip. We had to get a background check, and about a month after we applied we received word we were approved to go on the trip.

About a month before the trip we received a packet in the mail. It contained a page of prohibited items (cell phones, cameras, binoculars, recording devices, incendiary devices, etc.). If any of those items were found on anyone during the trip, the paper warned, the trip could be cancelled. We also had a minute-by-minute itinerary for the daylong tour.

The day before the tour, we went to the Atomic Testing Museum, which somehow managed to make a very interesting topic seem, well, kind of boring. The museum, part of the Smithsonian, was quite a letdown, and not something I'd recommend unless you are really interested in the topic and can go through the museum during a quiet period, when you don't have four or five different videos all running at the same time in a small space. 

Fortunately, the tour was fantastic.

The plan was to meet at the museum at 7:30, have our identification checked, receive a badge, and then board a bus and depart at 8 am for the Test Site. Our tour would include visits to Mercury, Frenchman's Flat, Yucca Flat, Sedan Crater, and more.

Our guide was Ernie Williams, an 84-year old veteran who had worked at the Nevada Test Site beginning in the 1950s. After he retired, a contractor who does work at the NTS hired him and he continues to work part-time. Because he had been there during the tests, he had great stories to tell. And a wonderful memory.

After going through the guard station (run by contract guards), we stopped at the cafeteria in Mercury, NV. At one time this was a huge town, complete with an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a bowling alley. Nowadays the Test Site employs many fewer people, and most commute every day. The cafeteria had bathrooms and vending machines.

Then it was onto Frenchman's Flat. Ernie had us get out of the bus to look at some elevated tracks that had been part of one test. The pressure wave had bent them. We then drove around some of the other buildings that had been tested to see how they would withstand the impact of a nuclear bomb.

What surprised me most during the day was just how many tests had been done at the Nevada Test Site: 100 atmospheric tests and 828 underground tests. These were done between 1951 and 1992. This fact sheet gives a great overview of the history of the NTS.

A total of 928 tests is a lot of tests. Couldn't they have combined a few? (I never did find out the answer to that!)

Some of those tests left nuclear waste behind, and part of the Nevada Test Site is a low-level radioactive disposal area, where they dig pits, put in the garbage (some of it from other Department of Energy sites), and then bury it. We visited the site and saw some of the places where they bury the garbage.

After that we headed north towards Yucca Flat. Before we got there, Ernie pointed out the DAF, or Device Assembly Facility. We couldn't even get close, there was a big guard station on the road there, plus two gun turrets on the building. And the building has a double fence and most of it is underground. This is top secret stuff. The fact sheet gives a hint of what is there: 

"The DAF is a collection of more than 30 individual steel-reinforced concrete buildings connected by a rectangular common corridor. The entire complex, covered by compacted earth, spans an area of 100,000 square feet.

Currently the United States is not conducting nuclear tests. However, the President pledged to maintain an underground test readiness program in the event that nuclear testing resumes. The DAF plays a crucial role in achieving test readiness capability." 

We went over the pass and descended into Yucca Flat. Soon we were driving with big craters on either side of the bus. We even drove down into one, Bilby Crater, and back out again. The craters formed when the nuclear explosions basically melted the rock. Different sized craters reflected the different sizes of the weapons and the different depths at which they were deployed.

We got out of the bus at a huge white building, about six stories tall. This was the site where they were going to do the 829th underground test. They had the hole drilled, the equipment in place, the trailers with the sensing equipment ready, and then George Bush declared a moratorium on nuclear testing. Ernie was not at all happy about that. He said $66 million had been put into this test. I asked if that was the average cost for each test, and he said no, the average was $25-$30 million per nuclear test. Wow again.

They had all sorts of reasons for doing tests. One was to see how much earth could be moved, say in case they wanted to make another Panama Canal using nuclear bombs. (Never mind the ramifications of highly radioactive ground potentially being flooded.) The result was Sedan Crater, the biggest crater. We had a nice stop at it. It reminded me of Ubehebe Crater in Death Valley or Lunar Crater along Highway 6 in Nevada. Except this one was manmade.

Ernie took a group photo of us (no horizon allowed in the photo--it said so on our itinerary, which we were now way behind, but that was okay with all of us because it was so interesting. We also had to make sure we put our temporary badges away. That was very important for some reason.).

Not far from Sedan Crater is Groom Lake, home to Area 51 (and perhaps the reason no horizon was allowed in the photo above?). Ernie helped develop that, but he couldn't tell us much about it. The Google Earth image of it reveals a huge installation, and I wouldn't be surprised if much of it is underground so pesky satellites can't see what's going on. You can see in the Google Earth image below runways and hangars--lots and lots of hangars.


After visiting Sedan Crater, we took a different road and passed by some trenches where troops had witnessed nuclear explosions and had been part of an experiment to see what would happen to them. There were also experiments to see what would happen to animals, houses, and equipment.

We made a stop at the Mercury cafeteria on the way out, then drove the hour back to Las Vegas.

It was a fascinating trip, and I highly recommend it. My husband was impressed with the amount of electrical material left behind. So many electrical boxes, wires, and more. I'm sure everyone who goes on the trip leaves with different things sticking with them. There is so much to absorb. (Here are articles about the tour from The Atlantic, Religionandpolitics.org, the New York Times, and the LA Times.)

To learn more, you can find many fact sheets here. And here's a specific one just about the tour.

Finally, thanks so much to all those who helped watch and shuttle our kids so that we could go: my mother-in-law Sylvia and her husband David; our babysitter, Carmela; and the great carpool friends, Jenny, Jess, and Stephanie.

Our New Pets

 We were recently gifted some new pets by my brother and sister-in-law. Have you ever had these pets? They are sea monkeys! Otherwise known as brine shrimp. Sea monkeys have been marketed since 1961, when they were called Instant Life. The next year, their promoter, Harold Von Braunhut, invented the term sea monkeys because their long tail somehow looked like a monkey tail. Sea monkeys were marketed extensively in comic books.

We received a little tank that we filled with water and then added a packet of water conditioner (basically salt). The next day we added sea monkey eggs. The brine shrimp have a life cycle that includes cryptobiosis or anhydrobiosis, which is basically an inert state that allows them to withstand drying up, like they might encounter out in real life when a puddle dries up. That's the reason they can be shipped around the country (and even to the moon!) and then hatch when they're put in water. According to Wikipedia (which has more interesting information), the sea monkeys we have are not found out in nature. They're a hybridized version called Artemia NYOS (New York Ocean Science).

As far as pets go, they're easy to care for. We add water and food about once a week. We go look at them occasionally. And I had some fun doing a photoshoot (they move fast, so it's hard to capture them!).  And they're much smaller than they look in these photos--about a half-inch long full grown.

Thanks to my brother and sister-in-law for enriching our lives. We will be sure to reciprocate. Although we might send a pet that's a little larger, like our other pet, who happens to wag his tail quite a lot.

The Sandhill Cranes are Back!

 Sandhill cranes recently returned to the ranch, to my great delight. These huge birds are so fascinating, and they really leave no doubt that birds are descendants of dinosaurs. Sandhill cranes have been around for quite awhile (although not as long as dinosaurs); their fossils have been dated back as far as 2.5 million years.

The photo above shows the reddish feathers on these sandhill cranes. Those are due to foraging in iron-rich mud. Also note the curved feathers on the rump.

I got out of the van to take the photo, and that spooked the birds, so they took off.

This photo isn't quite in focus, but the shape of the bird makes it look so much like a pterodactyl that I had to include it!

The sandhill cranes made a big circle and flew in the beautiful golden hour sunlight.

As I was editing the photos I saw that the birds flew in sync.

But then they didn't. Why not? Well, probably due to a small weight difference, although both sexes are nearly the same size. Sandhill cranes mate for life, which is sometimes more than 20 years. During the summer, sometimes up to 30 sandhill cranes stay at the ranch. I haven't seen baby sandhill cranes, but my husband has. Typically they raise just one young a year.

Back in sync again, with the shadowed foothills in the distance. For more about sandhill cranes, along with a recording of their cool sound, check out this Cornell Lab of Ornithology link.

Lint Camp 2015

 Lehman Cave at Great Basin National Park was the place to be for a lint and restoration camp in February and March.

What is lint?

Lint includes the tiny pieces of clothing (think dryer lint) that come off as we walk around. In a cave, air currents help them float around until they settle on cave formations, where they may change the way the speleothems form or provide an unnatural food source. Because caves are such sensitive environments, often with few changes such as sunlight and darkness, temperature swings, or flooding (at least in many caves in the arid Great Basin), they need a little help. They may need a lot of help if almost 30,000 people a year go through them, like Lehman Cave. If 30,000 people went through your house, it might need a little cleaning, too. (Mine needs a lot of cleaning with a lot fewer people than that!)

I took the kids to participate for a day. Desert Girl helped pick up pieces of litter with some tweezers. The tweezers made it a fun task.

A lot of people came for the February lint camp. We quickly became friends.

My friend Deanna came from Ely with her daughter, which made Desert Girl very happy.

But even with friends, the kids eventually tired of cleaning. They took a movie break. The cave proved to be an excellent theater.

Meanwhile, the volunteers were busy dusting stalactites and stalagmites, picking hairballs out of popcorn, and removing old trail debris to uncover natural cave floors. The back of the pickup truck started filling up.

So why would people volunteer their time to clean the cave? One reason is they get to visit parts of the cave that are usually off-limits, like the Talus Room. Here the special tour traverses the Sunken Garden, bypassing the pools of water.

We even found a pseudoscorpion, which is rare in this part of the cave.

Before long we were in the immense Talus Room. It is so different from the rest of Lehman Cave, cavernous and almost barren, with very few formations. Huge boulders litter the floor, giving testimony that this isn't one of the most stable parts of the cave.

Some beautiful formations do decorate the ends of the room and also this huge wall, called the Rainbow Wall.

On another slab, the cave has been turned into a bulletin board with signatures from 1885.

 Everyone enjoyed seeing the Talus Room.

Then it was back to work. Here are some rimstone dams that I was cleaning. Dirt had obscured many of the crenulations.

Another part of lint camp involved checking all the lights for algae growth, and upon finding some, spraying it with a bleach solution. The algae is not natural to the cave environment and also provides an unnatural food source.

 Lint camp has an interesting effect on people. Many come and are surprised by how much they like it. They find a zen in concentrating on just one area and making it look better. They start feeling like that little part of the cave is theirs. They can't wait to come back and make it look even better. They even say that they don't want anyone else to touch their spot--it's theirs and they have dreams about it.

So who knew? Lint camp is so much more than cleaning. It's about finding peace, making new friends, discovering parts of the cave that haven't seen the light for decades, and feeling that you're making a difference.

Thanks to everyone who participated in lint camp!

If you'd like to read a couple other perspectives, check out these articles and photos in the Los Angeles Times and National Parks Magazine.

First 2015 Snow Survey

At the end of February it was time to put on the skis and head up into the mountains to check how much snow we had. This has been done annually since 1942 along Baker Creek in eastern Nevada, and I've been helping the last several years. Usually we have lots of snow the end of February, but this year we didn't, so we were able to drive up to the Baker Creek Campground, which saved us a couple of hours.

We started skiing up the road and came across these tracks. Any idea what they are? (Answer at end of post)

Hint: they lead to a burrow under a rock.

At 8,000 feet we had enough snow on the road to ski, but not enough to get around the sagebrush bushes.

So we had to walk, carrying our skis. Not fun.

We found snow on the ground at the first snow course, but there was so little we had to put all the snow in the tube from the five samples into a plastic bag and do a bulk sample to weigh it.

The snow water equivalent (moisture in the snow) at Baker Creek #1 was 1.8 inches, or 36% of median (1981-2010). The snow depth was 10 inches, or 50% of median (1981-2010).

We did a quick group selfie.

Then it was time to head further up the mountain. Nicole with the NRCS office was doing this snow survey for the first time, but the rest of us were repeat offenders.

When we got up higher we found some nice snow.

But then we reached spots that were melted out and we had to take the skis off. It was a workout putting skis on and taking them off.

Fortunately the second snow course had more snow.

This is looking back up towards the top ski course marker. You can see the nice powder.

The snow is measured by pushing the snow tube into the snow. Often it picks up some dirt at the bottom, which has to be removed to get accurate measurements.

The snow water equivalent (moisture in the snow) at Baker Creek #2 was 5.1 inches, or 47% of median (1981-2010). The snow depth was 25 inches, or 61% of median (1981-2010).

On the way we passed this sign: Baker Lake Trail. Someone had added infinity miles. Someone else had added 2.7 miles. And someone else had written Turn Around. Fortunately we didn't have to go all the way to Baker Lake.

Mark on the ground! He's our best skiier. I fell eight times on the way down, so he was doing much better than me. Our snow conditions were constantly changing from icy to powder to a crust and depths from zero to over two feet. It made it a challenge.

Even as we got higher we found spots that didn't have much snow.

Finally we arrived at the big meadow with a spring channel along one side that is our third and last snow course.

The sign looked extra tall this year.

It started snowing on us as we measured. We were hoping for a quick six inches to cover all the rocks to make it a smoother trip down, but it was about a fifteen-minute dusting. The orange zigzag sign was for when they did aerial surveys of this snowcourse; an observer from an airplane would be able to estimate snow depth based on how many zigs or zags he could see.

The snow water equivalent (moisture in the snow) at Baker Creek #3 was 5.7 inches, or 43% of median (1981-2010). The snow depth was 30 inches, or 67% of median (1981-2010).

When we finished measuring, we geared up for the trip down (for me that meant putting on my snow pants in anticipation of closer contact with the snow). We entered the clouds for part of the trip down, which is a really strange feeling out here where we're used to seeing over twenty miles every day.

The data we gathered is used by the NRCS to do water forecasting. They just issued their March 1 Nevada Water Supply Outlook Report, and it's kind of grim. We're hoping for lots of March snow so that the April snow survey will be more skiing and less walking, and more importantly, the fish will have more water during the summer.

p.s. Did you guess what animal left the tracks on the road? If you guessed marmot, you're right! They are one of the longest hibernating animals in the world. They usually wake up in March or April and then hibernate in July, after they've eaten the tastiest of greens, but apparently there's enough to eat for at least one to be awake in late February.